AgTexas Farm Credit honors local graduating seniors with $17K in scholarships.
Updated: May 21
Special to Beneath the Surface News
On Tuesday evening, April 9, the day following the total solar eclipse, AgTexas Farm Credit Services brightened a lot of smiles by awarding $17,000 in scholarships during its ninth annual AgTexas Ag Youth Scholarship awards program at the Lake Granbury Conference Center.
AgTexas honored seven graduating high school seniors who have excelled in their 4-H clubs and FFA chapters, each with a $1,000 scholarship.
The $7,000 is part of the almost $270,000 in scholarships and gift cards being awarded through the education initiative that AgTexas created nine years ago.
Combined with $16,000 in graduate-level scholarships, AgTexas has awarded almost $52,000 this spring.
Those scholarship recipients are Orian Gaston (Navarro County 4-H), Aiden Hunter (Ellis County 4-H), Hunter McKenzie (Joshua FFA), Elaine Meyers (Corsicana FFA), Alondra Robles (Hico FFA), Shayla Mader (Stephenville FFA and Erath County 4-H) and Ryleigh Whitaker (Cisco FFA and Eastland County 4-H).
In addition to the seven Central Texas-area $1,000 scholarship winners, all 16 regional honorees each received a $100 gift card.
These gift card recipients included six honorees from the Stephenville area: Kaylan Kaiser (Erath County 4-H); Shayla Mader (Stephenville FFA/Erath County 4-H), Ryleigh Whitaker (Cisco FFA/Eastland County 4-H); and Tom Kuiper, Reagan Brister and Alondra Robles (all three from Hico FFA).
The program has awarded nearly $200,000 in scholarships to graduating seniors and graduate students in the markets where AgTexas has offices – Amarillo, Brownfield, Burleson, Dumas, Hereford, Hillsboro, Levelland, Lubbock, Plainview, Seminole and Stephenville.
This is the second year AgTexas has awarded graduate-level scholarships to previous Ag Youth of the Month honorees.
This year’s Ag Youth Distinguished Alumni Scholarship recipient is Carmen Kuiper a 2023 Hico High School graduate, who received a $10,000 scholarship to help her pursue a degree double-majoring in animal science production and agricultural business farm and ranch management at Oklahoma State University.
This is the highest amount of scholarship money AgTexas awards to a single student every year.
Upon graduation, Carmen plans to pursue a career within the dairy industry, owning and operating her own large-scale dairy heifer-raising operation.
“We are honoring some of the best and brightest young minds in Texas with this program,” says AgTexas Farm Credit CEO Kayla Robinson.
“These students represent the next generation of agriculture in Texas and the United States. It’s our privilege to pay tribute to their achievements thus far and encourage them for their future and the future of agriculture.
“We love the excitement of celebrating with energetic 4-H and FFA students because they bring such positivity into the room. Graduation season is a special time in their lives, and we enjoy hearing about their hopes and dreams.”
AgTexas also presented a new award – Ag Youth Leader of the Year - with a $1,000 check to Savannah Bowers, FFA instructor at Stephenville High School.
In her seven years of service, she has led 69 FFA students to win state championships and 12 students to win national championships. AgTexas also presented a matching $1,000 to benefit the Stephenville FFA chapter.
Outstanding 4-H and FFA high school students received prominent recognition for their dedication to agriculture.
These 4-H and FFA programs help introduce many of their participants to agriculture, encouraging students to learn and develop career, leadership, and public speaking skills that lay a solid foundation for future success.
“We are very pleased to have created the Ag Youth of the Month program because it brings positive attention to young people who are investing in our state and nation as well as their own futures,” Robinson said.
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